RT Journal Article
T1 The trilobite assemblage of the Declivolithus Fauna (lower Katian, Ordovician) of Morocco: a review with new data
A1 Pereira, Sofía
A1 Rábano, Isabel
A1 Gutiérrez Marco, Juan Carlos
AB Intense commercial exploitation of fossils in the famous El Qaid Errami area in the last 20 years has led to the discovery of the interesting Declivolithus Fauna in the Moroccan Anti-Atlas. This unusually large trinucleid trilobite, described originally from the Czech Republic, is the most conspicuous element of an assemblage mainly occurring in the Bofloss locality, a local biofacies development of pelagic mudstones and sandstones cropping out in a structurally isolated place in the Tizi n'Ounfite area. Here we revise this Declivolithus Fauna trilobite assemblage from Morocco, increasing the known trilobite diversity from four to 11 species: Ulugtella? biformis n. sp., Selenopeltis cf. S. vultuosa, Phacopidina quadrata, Eudolatites cf. E. bondoni, Prionocheilus cf. P. verneuili, Nobiliasaphus cf. N. kumatox, Cyclopyge cf. C. rediviva, Symphysops stevaninae, Heterocyclopyge sp., Dionide sp., and Declivolithus alfredi. The new data and the very good preservation of specimens in sandstones, clarify the specific identity of previously reported taxa. Although the stratigraphical correlation of the fossiliferous levels remains problematic, it probably corresponds to the upper part of the Lower Ktaoua Formation or to the lower half of the Upper Tiouririne Formation. Most taxa support previous assignment of the Moroccan assemblage to the late Berounian (ca. early Katian, Ka2), although a middle Berounian (ca. Sa2–Ka1) age cannot be excluded. Most of the identified species are known from the Czech Republic (eight out of 11), showing that the strong faunal link between Morocco and the Czech Republic still existed during the Late Ordovician, being stronger than the link with the coeval Ibero-Armorican domain faunas.
PB Cambridge University Press
SN 0022-3360
YR 2024
FD 2024-01-15
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118896
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118896
LA eng
NO Pereira, S., Rábano, I., & Gutiérrez-Marco, J. C. (2024). The trilobite assemblage of the Declivolithus Fauna (Lower katian, ordovician) of Morocco: A review with new data. Journal of Paleontology, 98(4), 686-719. https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2023.77
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
NO Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
NO IUGS–UNESCO
DS Docta Complutense
RD 9 abr 2025